Teenage girls charged in fight posted on YouTube

TURNER, Maine — Two 17-year-old girls, both students at Leavitt Area High School, have been charged with disorderly conduct following a fight that left one with a concussion and a fractured facial bone.

Police said a group of students filmed the fight and posted the footage on YouTube. The short video clip helped Maine State Police Trooper Ricci Cote identify the brawlers.

The fight took place on June 16 at a baseball field on Cobb Road, Cote said. One girl got the better of the other. By the time she was pulled away, the second girl was down on the ground, bleeding and dazed.

Although there appears to be no connection to what has been described as an organized fight club out of Leavitt Area High School, Cote says brawling among students there continues to be a problem.

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“It’s another case where these kids are making light of a serious situation,” the trooper said. “One girl was hurt pretty badly.”

Earlier in the year, groups of teenagers had been charged with organizing fights, filming them and uploading the footage to the Internet.

Beginning late last year, Maine State Police Trooper Michael Chavez began investigating reports that groups of students were organizing fights that were being filmed and put online.

In February, two Leavitt students and a former student were charged. In April, two more students were charged with illegal prize-fighting.

In the April case, Chavez said, a teacher driving west on Route 117 toward Buckfield, about a mile past the Route 4 intersection, spotted a group of what appeared to be 20 teens of various ages on the lawn of a private home. Among that group, Chavez said, the witness saw what appeared to be two teenagers, each wearing boxing gloves, about to square off.

The names of the girls charged in the most recent incident have not been released because they are minors.